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 This page is the informal log of my transiency process, in reverse chronological order.
+- 23 October
+days in the row of space rental. This time in completely different setting. First of all we had a completely full house. Two guests in the tower, 30 people in the space, catering group in the kitchen, Ingrid having some of her meetings at FoAM, Jura coming and going with the bunch of her friends. It was buzzing... In the second place this time the hosting of the space most of the days i shared with our amazing Jura and with helping hand of Ingrid. This setting and not having to cook made a huge differents. I had no back pain and could read a book quietly during the time in the studio. However on the days that the tasks where not shared i could not concentrate on anything more serious. Constantly keeping an eye on the guests is sometimes very boring and tiring.
+- 16 October
+"How charming it would be if it were possible to cause these natural images to imprint themselves durably, and remain fixed on paper." W.H. Fox Talbot
+I'm reading about the times of invention of photography. Many individuals where in search for similar things and many of them where driven by a similar frustration of not being (good enough) drawers or painters to portray their surroundings.
+The first printed picture was referred as "the first known instance of a house painting its own portrait".
+I guess this year i'm driven by the similar force too. But instead of trying to portray natural accuracy i'm going for a total blend. I'm searching for pictures to achieve painting qualities by using textures and colours of the various films and clarity of the lens. The idea of letting the surroundings paint its own picture sounds very appealing to me at this time. Especially because i spend so much time in particular surrounding such as my house, garden, train and FoAM studio. The same objects, plants and people appears in my photos regularly. I'm not entirely happy with the results yet. But i like to work with the timing and movement that makes the scenery blend in colours and shadows. Somehow to me it associates with breathing patterns. Or maybe it is just a stepping stone for finally picking up the paintbrush... In any case i'm so grateful to have time to investigate it and try out all this.
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+I also want to experiment a lot more with the idea of a portrait. Reading about old methods where in order to be photographed a person had to paint it self white, sit for at least 15-30 min in the same position and put up with different lamps facing you gives me some ideas. It sounds like an cleansing ritual followed by a meditation. I'm preparing a series of workshop for young autistic people under the theme of self-portrait. While now the self portrait associates so much with an instant selfie i would like to try doing it the old way  but using more up to date equipment and see what the result of that would be and what impact it would have on the person sitting for it.
+- 9 October
+Looking at the calendar this week was the last more empty week before the intensive period will start. There are lots of upcoming rentals and a few travels on the horizon. Therefor i concentrated on being at home and spoiling the family. I set the challenge for my self to only cook things that i never cooked before. What a fun! Even  the week is a very short time frame for such things the experiments in the kitchen sparked many conversations and laughter. We all agreed that by the end of the week we will take a vote for what can be made again, what has to be improved or never made again. The clear winner of the experiment was sweet potatoes stuffed with chickpeas. I promise to post the recipe when i'll improve it till perfection and have time to take pictures of it.
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+Also this week the weather got noticeably colder. It is time to bring all the plants back inside. But before doing that many of it had to be replanted. And once you start with that you end up with many baby/sister/brother/mother plants.
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+It has been a good summer and i have now so many plant siblings that Jura is selling or giving it away to all her friends. Perhaps opening plant a shop at some point in the future is not that far fetched.
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+The week ended in Brussels with a delightful design session for a ritual with Barbara, Maja and Ingrid. I like this kind of work. It is very creative, being able to build on each others ideas and something so meaningful as wel.
+September- 2 October
+A busy week. 4 coaching sessions including a group of Lithuanian enthusiasts that wants to organise series of cultural events in Brussels. I was avoiding such groups and activities for a long time. And perhaps that was a right thing to do. Because now we can talk about experimental and small formats, aesthetics and quality and it resonates with the needs of the group as well. It is nice to see such people getting more open and perhaps if it gets combined with their various experiences something nice will come out.
+I spend this week playing around with my phone camera. I've got a clip on lens and installed a few new apps. It is lots of fun. I'm not yet sure how i feel about the results. Need to take some distance to evaluate it later.
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+- 25 September
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+For the first time i've visited Geel and met the group of people that i want to do a project with. It is a group of young adults with autism and natuur punt. What a calm energy! So much fragility and honesty in the eyes. We talked very little. Just walked in the park looking at the butterflies and frogs and listening to information about the specific nature needs. After that we had a cake and talked about what we are good at and what we have difficulties with. It has been so long that i wanted to work with group like this. Lets see how the project will develop and will they get enough funds to support it but i'm sure i want to do something with them.
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+This week finally the FoAM Brussels team met up again. It has been about two months. Lots of things to catch up. Not only about the stories from summer holidays but also an intense experience of the Hosting Retreat from the last weekend. I fell sad that i couldn't participate but perhaps also good. Not sure i'm ready to deal with people related problems yet. I think this year i need to be selfish and only choose activities that gives something back. No more charity for a while :)
+Also this week we had visitors Filastine and Nova. It felt like a residency. The FoAM studio got turned into the rehearsal space for their performance. We even had a chance to sit trough their general rehearsal before the concert in Liege. Nice experience. Felt like a wonderful FoAM thing. The week got finalised with FoAM Apero. It has been so long since last one. I really miss it...
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+One day it is summer and the next morning you understand it is gone. Autumn is here. It also means it is last chunk of time dedicated to the transiency. Time flies. Or is it only in our minds?
+https://www.wired.com/2016/09/arrow-of-time/?mbid=psocial_qz
 - 18 September
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 a bit of sage for prosperity
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-The abstract sound composer of the last century Varèse has ones said "...think of music as an arrangement of objects in space, and keep in mind how long it takes for any sound to travel through the hall." If i would paraphrase this sentence for dance and choreography it should sound something like this: Dance is an arrangement of metaphors in space that takes lots of time and invisible patterns for a body to travel trough.
+The abstract sound composer of the last century Varèse has once said "...think of music as an arrangement of objects in space, and keep in mind how long it takes for any sound to travel through the hall." If i would paraphrase this sentence for dance and choreography it should sound something like this: Dance is an arrangement of metaphors in space that takes lots of time and invisible patterns for a body to travel trough.
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-I spend this week like a fairytale in the tower of Frankfurt. Living and working intensively with Eisa & co on the new piece that explores happiness in the context of Disney animation films and Disney theme parks. Finally a hot summer week but almost the entire time spend indoors. I really didn't mind. The view from our rooms and studio was stunning. It felt like living and working above a busing city and seeing clearly hills on one side and forrest on the other. It was a dream week. Working in what it seems like a busy cultural institution. Due to an extra efficient german organisation, it allowed us to work uninterrupted by anyone else. We could choose when and how we wanted to work without any obligations to interact with the other artist groups present in the house at the same time. In fact we spend almost entire time with only 4 of us (Eisa and a new dance partner Josh, the composer Marc and me). We would start every morning at 10h with a discussion and more theoretical analysis of the subject and elements, set the frame work and goals for the day, go for lunch around 14h work more until 19-20h, go for dinner, have long conversations over a glas of wine in the kitchen, go to sleep. Do exactly the same the next day. And in the weekend i was joined by Pieter and Faust that came to see the open rehearsal. Working on something that you love, with people that are professional and interesting, concentrating only on one project, having lots of fun by improvising, not having pressure to define what the final result has to be, not needing to deal with any practical stuff made this week very precious.
+I spend this week like a fairytale in the tower of Frankfurt. Living and working intensively with Eisa & co on the new piece that explores happiness in the context of Disney animation films and Disney theme parks.
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+Finally a hot summer week but almost the entire time spend indoors. I really didn't mind. The view from our rooms and studio was stunning. It felt like living and working above a buzzing city and seeing clearly hills on one side and forrest on the other. It was a dream week. Working in what it seems like a busy cultural institution. Due to an extra efficient german organisation, it allowed us to work uninterrupted by anyone else. We could choose when and how we wanted to work without any obligations to interact with the other artist groups present in the house at the same time. In fact we spend almost entire time with only 4 of us (Eisa and a new dance partner Josh, the composer Marc and me). We would start every morning at 10h with a discussion and more theoretical analysis of the subject and elements, set the frame work and goals for the day, go for lunch around 14h work more until 19-20h, go for dinner, have long conversations over a glas of wine in the kitchen, go to sleep. Do exactly the same the next day. And in the weekend i was joined by Pieter and Faust that came to see the open rehearsal. Working on something that you love, with people that are professional and interesting, concentrating only on one project, having lots of fun by improvising, not having pressure to define what the final result has to be, not needing to deal with any practical stuff made this week very precious.
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-It has started with an extremely intensive and complex week in Panevezys where i facilitated a project called Migrating Birds. The aim of this project is to bring a divers group of people together to create ideas and projects to revive the city where the project is held. These goals where achieved, projects created and participants inspired. But the small group of organising team that we were was left with a bitter taste and completely drained of our energy. My colleague that agreed to assist me wasn't familiar with the methods i was using and was stressing out all the time.The second assistant who was suppose to help out had to concentrate on other issues that appeared after being too generous to accommodate many wishes of the participants. I was mostly left alone with a lot larger group than agreed and deal with the problems that i had not much experience with (such as writing press reports and so on...). On top of all this during the week we realised how complex the topic we are working with is. The city that after independence became ruled by mafia gangs, 3 very large industry sectors collapsed and got abandoned, cultural life that lived only on the legends of a few intellectuals that past away years ago and even a river that sometimes runs backwards against its current... We new this before we arrived but we couldn't estimate beforehand how deeply these problems still are rooted in the daily life of the citizens. The mafia behaviour that in the 90-s had a clear visible "dress code" now is hidden underneath the black suits and still so powerfully present in the daily city life. How much energy it took for us to keep everyone calm and not start fighting! Well we kept it all under control... Or almost under control. But the last evening blood was spilled... and the largest quantity on the mayors jacket. Such a painful reality check...
+It has started with an extremely intensive and complex week in Panevezys where i facilitated a project called Migrating Birds. The aim of this project is to bring a divers group of people together to create ideas and projects to revive the city where the project is held. These goals where achieved, projects created and participants inspired. But the small group of organising team that we were was left with a bitter taste and completely drained of our energy. My colleague that agreed to assist me wasn't familiar with the methods i was using and was stressing out all the time.The second assistant who was suppose to help out had to concentrate on other issues that appeared after being too generous to accommodate many wishes of the participants. I was mostly left alone with a lot larger group than agreed and deal with the problems that i had not much experience with (such as writing press reports and so on...). On top of all this during the week we realised how complex the topic we are working with is. The city that after independence became ruled by mafia gangs, 3 very large industry sectors collapsed and got abandoned, cultural life that lived only on the legends of a few intellectuals that past away years ago and even a river that sometimes runs backwards against its current... We knew this before we arrived but we couldn't estimate beforehand how deeply these problems still are rooted in the daily life of the citizens. The mafia behaviour that in the 90-s had a clear visible "dress code" now is hidden underneath the black suits and still so powerfully present in the daily city life. How much energy it took for us to keep everyone calm and not start fighting! Well we kept it all under control... Or almost under control. But the last evening blood was spilled... and the largest quantity on the mayors jacket. Such a painful reality check...
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-As part of my transiency i can only say i managed to facilitate the whole event on my own. From the initial design to the implementation and even graphic documentation that proudly found its place and the main room of Touristic Office of the city. All methods and exercises worked well and gave me a lot more confidence to do this in some less complicated circumstances. Also be strict with organisers about things we agreed upon ( number of participants, extra activities, help needed...) And most importantly measure well the energy spend vs getting back.
+As part of my transiency i can only say i managed to facilitate the whole event on my own. From the initial design to the implementation and even graphic documentation that proudly found its place and the main room of Touristic Office of the city. All methods and exercises worked well and gave me a lot more confidence to do this in some less complicated circumstances. Also it is essential to remember to be strict with organisers about things we agreed upon ( number of participants, extra activities, help needed...) And most importantly measure well the energy spend vs getting back.
-On a plus side this week i visited one of the abandoned factories Ekranas. I feel very sorry that i couldn't spend more time there in the complete vastness. The space is huge and so empty like a set for cinema. The light traveling trough the space from one side to another makes it dance with the shadows.
+On a plus side this week i visited one of the abandoned factories Ekranas. I feel very sorry that i couldn't spend more time there in the complete vastness. The space is huge and so empty like a set for cinema. The light traveling trough the space from one side to another makes a dance with the shadows.
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-After that the holiday followed. But it seemed as if all the good weather was spend on the week in Panevezys and all we had left was only dark clouds, rain and low temperature. I was not ready to socialise and meet lots of people as i usually do during the visits in Lithuania. So instead of settling somewhere we traveled around without seeing too many human beings. One of the top destinations was a city of Visaginas. It was built as a town for workers engaged in the construction of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (exact replica of Chernobyl). According to a few besides Visaginas is seen as a perfect example how to build a green city from scratch. Originally planned to be shaped like a butterfly with lots of interconnecting bicycle and walking paths, green squares and a surrounding pine forrest, this city still has a feel of some kind of health resort.
+After that the holiday followed. But it seemed as if all the good weather was spend on the week in Panevezys and all we had left was only dark clouds, rain and low temperature. I was not ready to socialise and meet lots of people as i usually do during the visits in Lithuania. So instead of settling somewhere we traveled around without seeing too many human beings. One of the top destinations was a city of Visaginas. It was built as a town for workers engaged in the construction of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (exact replica of Chernobyl). According to a few websites Visaginas is seen as a perfect example how to build a green city from scratch. Originally planned to be shaped like a butterfly with lots of interconnecting bicycle and walking paths, green squares and a surrounding pine forrest, this city still has a feel of some kind of health resort.
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